What is Prog 3 - Towards Attributes
The reason I’m working the AllMusic article is because the material may yield stories told and perhaps clues—however pundit‐filtered—so let’s keep going,
Both styles [Art Rock and Prog Rock R.C.] are intrinsically album‐based, taking advantage of the format’s capacity for longer, more complex compositions and extended instrumental explorations. In fact, many prog bands were fond of crafting concept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme.
True in part. Ignores the fact that the ‘Progressive Pop’ that predated the later developments of Album Rock was singles‐based—some mention Phil Spector work, The Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’. Bob Dylan’s ‘Hey Mr. Tamborine Man’–read the linked articles for proof—and similar (though strange to skip items like Roy Orbison Monument singles or The Walker Brothers?). And that the initial phase of what came to be described as Prog‐Rock was loaded with singles like The Zombies ‘She’s Not There’, Fairport Convention’s ‘Si Tu Doit Partir’, Jethro Tull’s ‘The Witches Promise’ and Family’s ‘The Weaver’s Answer’. But we can handle this by saying that whatever it is that is distinctive about Prog Rock can be compressed into a single, also favours longer forms of composition that, in the era of Album‐orientated Pop and Rock, would expand—fair enough.
And now,
In addition to pushing rock’s technical and compositional boundaries, prog‐rock was also arguably the first arena where synthesizers and electronic textures became indispensable parts of a rock ensemble.
We’re going wrong. Synths and electronics arrived from the avante‐garde into pop music, and were at the same time pushed as the avant‐garde toyed with pop music. They’re a novelty sell, right? The connection with other musics was, far as I can tell, through the pop aspects of those musics. As for rock, not only are synths and electronic textures not rock, they can be a signal of rock‐dissolution. However, the writer gets at something. As stated, it is that synthesising keyboards could be used in drum/guitar small‐group musics. Historically this is, as told by musicians, from hot dancehall and Jazz stylings, plus the stone‐cold hit of the keyboard/organ attack on Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde album. But the writer is onto something when he says keyboards are all over the place in music that gets called ‘prog’.
Onwards,
King Crimson’s 1969 debut In the Court of the Crimson King firmly established the concept of progressive rock, and a quirky, eclectic scene was taking shape in Canterbury, led by the jazzy psychedelia of the Soft Machine.
Good oh, some references. Now some history,
By the mid‐’70s, a backlash was beginning to set in; prog‐rock sometimes mistook bombast for majesty, and its far‐reaching ambition and concern with artistic legitimacy could make for overblown, pretentious music. Its heyday soon came to an end with the advent of punk, which explicitly repudiated prog’s excesses and aimed to return rock & roll to its immediate, visceral roots.
Oh, this old saw—the Wikipedia article is careful to avoid. Prog rock never ‘ended’—that’s the viewport of a fashion critic. Like Irish song, Bel Canto, Flamenco, whatever, it continued to be performed, toured and recorded. It also continued to chart, maybe not as much as it did, but it had audience, often sustained in size, across the world. But yes, it was unlikely ‘The Weaver’s Answer’ would chart next to ‘Saturday Night Fever’. Yet some albums quietly sold millions. But we need new shiney things!
A small cult of neo‐prog bands catered to faithful audiences who still liked grandiose concepts and flashy technique; the first was Marillion, and many more popped up in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Though we don’t really know what it is yet.
Definition towards blur
I’m spending time here because we need to shovel this out of the way. But some marks of what is called ‘prog’ are coming through, thankfully. Ignoring factors I dismiss above, Prog,
has concept, or at least unified, albums
is often epic stories
has a capacity for extended instrumental explorations
is keen on keyboards (maybe ungood factor for definition)
pushes technical performance boundaries, ‘virtuoso musicianship’
may be majestic and/or bombastic and/or pretentious
This list has the advantage that applied loosely it matches up to most of what most people would likely call ‘prog’. For example, Yes or Mike Oldfield albums. Unfortunately, it also describes the Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner (maybe light on the keyboards), the musical Evita (especially if the musicians threw in flugelhorn solos), Bollywood soundtracks and the Purple Rain album by Prince. It has some odd edge cases, maybe describes The Wombles ‘Remember You’re a Womble’ album, Fella Kuti’s music, near‐anything by Cecil Taylor and some by Wendy Carlos. But fails the album ‘Mass in F Minor’ by the Electric Prunes (unless a mass is a ‘concept’?), Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger album (no extended exploration), early Rush (no keyboards), and Procul Harum (who I’d argue never showed their virtuosity). So this is a list of features that may occur in Prog Rock, but seems to cast too wide. While at the same time misses some fundament of understanding. No challenge, no fun, and not a good answer.